Mikoto Misaka's Final Regret
by Dairene
Summary: Touma never finds her in time, and Mikoto Misaka chooses to fall at Accelerator's hand...
1. Fall of Railgun- Fatal Sacrifice

Mikoto Misaka shot a railgun blast at Accelerator, which deflected back, narrowly deflected by Misaka's own field.

"Well, hello original," Accelerator shrugged, noticing her. "I'm fighting one of these puppets, so would you let me finish first?"

"Don't you dare touch her," Misaka gritted her teeth. "I'll be your opponent from now on!"

"Eh?!" Accelerator raised an eyebrow in annoyance. He scratched his head. "Is there something wrong with your memory? Didn't your clones say that I can't fight you? It'll mess up the experiment. Or do you envy my power? Trying to stop me from advancing to Level 6?"

Mikoto gritted her teeth, but decided to play along. Summoning all the bluster and arrogance she could, she bluffed, "Th-That's right! Who do you think you are, thinking you can get to Level 6! Of all people to become a Level 6 first, how can it be you? It should be me!"

"Haha, so who would've thought? You're just another punk who wants my place. Guess it's time to teach you your place."

Accelerator gently touched a cargo crate, and it launched at Mikoto with astonishing velocity.

Mikoto instinctively knocked it aside, before realizing that wasn't what she actually wanted.

Mikoto decided to change tactics a little. "Ha, pathetic."

"Eh?" Accelerator frowned, cocking his head. "What did you say?"

"I said you're pathetic, asshole. I'm rather disappointed. I never imagined the first hit to be a little stronger than that. Or are you playing games?" She launched a direct blast with her electricity.

"Bitch," Accelerator muttered, kicking the train track iron bars on the ground. A dozen of them levitated and aimed at Mikoto Misaka. "I'm tired of your stupid antics! Don't try that again!"

"Oh, yeah, going to stop me, dipshit?" Mikoto taunted, firing another railgun blast at him, and summoning a storm of iron sand.

"Tsk! Stupid bitch!" Accelerator fired the rails at her, more out of annoyance and trying to chase him off.

Mikoto could have dodged- in fact, her mind screamed at her to get out of the way or block it with her powers, as she easily could have. But she willed herself to stand still, suppressed her AIM diffusion field.

And the two of the bars stabbed her.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Mikoto screamed in indescribable agony, her mind going blank for a moment.

At last, her screaming stopped and she looked down in shock and disbelief. "My- my- " A bar had punctured her upper abdomen, ripping through her stomach and nailing her to the ground. Another had stabbed her in the lower abdomen, and a number of intestines had been torn from her in the impact. A third smashed right through her right knee, tearing through skin, muscle, and shattering bone. Her right lower leg tore off and plopped uselessly onto the gravel.

Her body's instinctive electrical powers were creating magnetism that forcibly latched to the iron atoms inside the hemoglobin of her red blood cells. It was the only thing preventing her from going into shock.

In her agony, somewhere in her mind, Mikoto knew she had to die. That she had come here to die for some reason, but that reason couldn't compute in her tortured, pain-addled mind.

Her adrenaline was screaming for her to live, and suddenly the pain wasn't so immediate. It was still there, but abruptly it felt distant, as if Mikoto was suddenly floating out of her body.

In that instant, all her regrets began to flood her mind. "F- I- I'm so s-sorry… Mom. There's- so much- I couldn't say… you too, Kuroko, Uiharu, Saten… I'm so glad I got to meet you. I'm wish- I wish- I could see you all again… one last time… And- and you Kamijou Touma, you brave dummy…" She broke out into sobs, misery and terror shaking her body. "I'm so sorry, everyone. I- I don't really want to die! Please, I don't want to die!"

Abruptly, Mikoto felt a familiar presence and turned her head slightly to see a familiar figure running toward her. She couldn't help but find the situation darkly humorous despite the horror of it all. "Ha… I'm… really going to die…I'm…hallucinating in a time… like this…"

In that Mikoto gave up, her head lolling backward, blood oozing from the corner of her mouth. As the life dissipated out her mutilated body, her AIM diffusion field dispersed as well. Her blood burst out of both holes in her abdomen, from her severed leg, and from every orifice of her body, splashing all over the gravel.

Kamijou Touma panted desperately, racing toward the location where the next experiment had been pinpointed, where he'd feared Mikoto herself had gone.

Only in time to find his worst fears confirmed.

"W-Why?" Touma fell to his knees. "Why- couldn't I- why did it- why her-?"

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Several days later, at an ITEM safehouse…

Mugino frowned and bit her lip as she finished reading the message.

"Is something the matter, boss?" Rikou Takitsubo asked.

"No, nothing…" Mugino closed her eyes. "It's just- that- the stupid girl we fought in the science facility is dead. Railgun is gone, and I am now the third-ranked Level Five ESPer in Academy City."

"That's great news!" Frenda Seivelun cheered. "Way to go boss! Boss?"

"Is something wrong?" Ritsuko reiterated in concern. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

"The dumb girl went and picked a fight with Accelerator, apparently, and got killed. Rumor is she barely put up a fight," Mugino sighed. "I know I should be celebrating, but I feel… annoyed. Almost cheated. This isn't how I imagined it- I wanted this position… but this feels wrong." She waved her team away. "Enough, it doesn't matter! I'm going to my room."


	2. After the End

Mikoto Misaka felt a light, gossamer feeling as if she was floating on the wind. "What, where?" She groaned, pushing herself up. Her mind was disoriented and she was almost blinded by the light around her. "Kuroko… did you… what did you do this time?"

Then her eyes widened as she saw her surroundings. She looked to be on the riverbank, near where she'd fought Touma just over a month ago.

She scrambled back to her feet. "I didn't get back to my dorm? What… am I doing out there? What the hell happened? I- can't- remember anything!" She scrunched up her forehead, trying to recall the last thing she could remember. "Think, Mikoto, think!"

Then the memories came flooding back.

Her eyes dilated in horrified shock as traumatic memories inundated her mind. "No! NO! I'm- I'm dead- I should be dead- but how- why- am I here?" She clutched her head in panic, foam bubbling out of her mouth.

After stumbling around for a few minutes in a nearly-delirious state, Mikoto fell to her knees, gasping for breath. "I- I need to find- someone- I need to-"

She saw two legs walk into her field of vision. Two very, very familiar legs.

Mikoto looked up to see one of her Sisters. But this one- this one had an all-too-familiar Gekota pin on her shirt.

Mikoto's eyes widened at the implication. "No… you're-"

"Hello, Onee-sama, MISAKA greets cagily, hoping for a warm welcome," The Sister said in her usual monotonous tone. "MISAKA did not expect to see Onee-sama here."

"You- you're… are you… 9982? You're- supposed to be dead… I saw you die…"

"MISAKA reluctantly confirms that she did die during Experiment 9982. Afterwards, MISAKA woke up here in what appears to be an accurate representation of Academy City. However, the population so far appears to be solely consisting of MISAKA Sisters already terminated in previous experiments. After connecting and consulting with the MISAKA Network here, MISAKA can only arrive at one conclusion- this is some form of afterlife, a form of existence after death."

"The- the a-afterlife?" Mikoto stared stunned for a moment. "So- so- I am- I really am dead-" She began laughing hysterically, a deranged, unhealthy laugh that tore out of throat. She cackled violently and fell to her knees, pounding the ground with a fist.

"MISAKA fails to find what is funny with this situation. MISAKA has no choice but to question Onee-sama's mental stability."

Finally, she managed to get a grip on herself and turned to 9982. "N-Never mind… I- I am glad to see you again… Are… are the others here too?"

"Yes… and I can share the experiences with them through the MISAKA Network formed by our minds. MISAKA reluctantly divulges most of them were opposed to meeting you… after we were made aware of your presence."

"So… even my clones, huh?" Mikoto chuckled to herself in a maniacal tone. "No, especially them… it's not surprise that they loathe me, after all I've done… to them…"

"No, that is incorrect."

"Huh?" Mikoto looked up puzzled. MISAKA 9982 had spoken with her usual monotone voice, but Mikoto sensed her words were firmer than usual, having a slight edge to them.

"MISAKA wants to express that it is correct that about 76.31% of present Sisters are opposed to approaching you, with about 23.69% in favor- including this MISAKA- it is not out of hatred. After all, we do not feel emotions."

"But… then why?" Mikoto asked, genuinely puzzled.

"This majority opinion was reached due to data input from MISAKA 10031, whose experience suggested that our presence caused great distress in Onee-sama. Furthermore, conversations with other humans informed us that people would feel emotions of disgust and discomfort at their own clones. We did not hope to continue causing such negative emotion even after death."

Mikoto winced as she remembered the catastrophic run-in with MISAKA 10031 in the park, and then the clone's gory demise not long afterward, that was the last straw in setting Mikoto on the fatal path she ended up taking. 'Of course- how would she have interpreted my reaction? She must have thought I hated her- she must have died- her last thought thinking I was… disgusted with her. I… really am a shitty person…'

"Then… why did you dissent?"

"MISAKA theorizes hesitantly that Onee-sama's distress could be born from alternate causes, such as opposition to the Level 6 Experiment, which Onee-sama seemed to express in other encounters with Sisters. In any cause, this MISAKA's previous interaction with Mikoto did not appear to cause such distress."

"But why? Why don't you hate me?" Mikoto let the words burst out tearfully. "It's all my fault that this had to happen to you! I- I caused all of this hell for you! You should loathe me! Despise me!"

"MISAKA finds such a sentiment illogical. Based on our information and interactions, it does not appear Onee-sama has any involvement in the Sisters Noise or Level 6 Shift Project, except acting as a template. MISAKA feels the alternative would have been worse. If Onee-sama had never contributed her genetic material, none of us Sisters would have had the opportunity to experience life even as a test subject, ephemeral as it was."

"MISAKA does not fully understand, but finds she agrees with that statement," Another MISAKA appeared out from hiding.

"H- Hi," Mikoto greeted awkwardly.

"MISAKA now realizes that MISAKA reached an incorrect conclusion during our initial encounter with Onee-sama, and regrets causing such distress."

"You're- 10031," Mikoto realized, walking over to the Sister and falling to her knees. "I'm- I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to react like that to you! You- must have… been so alone…" Tears dropped down from her face.

"MISAKA appreciates Onee-sama's concern, but MISAKA is never alone," 10031 stated calmly.

As if to prove her point, Sisters began to emerge from hiding all around them, from behind trees, bushes, buildings, flooding out like a hive mind and converging on Mikoto's position- dozens, hundreds, thousands- over ten thousand of them, in fact.

Such a sight might well have creeped out anyone else, but Mikoto had known what to expect by now. She smiled, "I- I'm so glad to see you, all of you… my sisters." She knew her voice wouldn't carry far enough for many of the clones to hear, but those that did would transmit it over the mental network they had. "I may never live up to your expectations, but if there's anything I can do for you, I will."

"We MISAKAs were created for the purpose of the experiment," MISAKA 10031 answered for the Network. "Now that our task is complete, we know what to do in this afterlife. Can you teach us, about life?"

"MISAKA suggests we also do our best with this chance we have, coyly hopeful to learn from Sister," 9982 added.

Mikoto wiped the tears from her face. "Of course. I'll teach you anything I can."

Over the next few days and then weeks, Mikoto grew accustomed to living with her clones in the afterlife, telling them stories and discussing philosophies, her own outlook on life, her wishes and dreams while she was still alive.

All the while, Mikoto waited apprehensively for MISAKA 10032 to show up, but she never did, and neither did any other of the Sisters. The MISAKA Network confirmed as much, reporting no further increases in networked units.

"I- I did it!" Mikoto exclaimed. "I put an end to it all- those that lived… they can live out their lives…"

"While Onee-sama was never able to fulfill all her dreams," MISAKA 9982 quipped. "Perhaps our living Sisters can?"

"Well… that'll be awkward…" Mikoto muttered, as a thought entered her head.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Meanwhile, in the real world, in Academy City…

Kamijou Touma had just persuaded MISAKA 10032 to return to her room, when a nurse hurried in, followed by the doctor, Heaven Canceller.

"Um, Kamijou Touma?" The nurse asked apprehensively.

"Um, yes?" Kamijou looked up, equally apprehensive.

"The… post office informed us… you have 9969 packages delivered to your name. The post office has allocated a… warehouse for them. Apparently, someone high-up in the city administration ordered them to put it there?"

"9969? How?" Touma looked dumbfounded.

"They are from the MISAKA clones," Heaven Canceller explained reluctantly.

"But why?"

"If I had to hazard a guess… especially from the 10032 acts around you, I would say the Sisters have developed a certain… affection for you after you saved their lives," Heaven Canceller postulated. "Not to mention you are their only tether to this world, to society, that they currently have. With their mental network, no doubt every sister saw what you did that night to defeat Accelerator, avenging the fallen clones, and their older sister."

Touma felt a pang in his heart as he remembered the horrible sight of Mikoto's broken, mutilated body sprawled on the ground. "I see."


End file.
